Salted Bourbon Caramel and Banana "Pudding Chômeur"... and my May giveaway!

You might want to hang on to your seat for this one. We're going into purely decadent territory today. 

I have barely been able to sit still the past few days in anticipation of announcing my May giveaway: a gift package from Fat Toad Farm, a goat farm in beautiful Vermont that makes the most exquisite caramel you've ever tasted! And wait, this isn't just any caramel. This is CAJETA!!! Cajeta is a traditional Mexican caramel made with goat's milk. And I've had an ongoing love affair with the stuff ever since I lived in Mexico 13 years ago, where you can buy it in any grocery store, by the tube or bottle, in candies, wafers, and even (a personal favourite), in your coffee. Here in Canada (and I imagine in the US as well), it's quite hard to find. So I was thrilled when I heard about Fat Toad Farm which is one of the very first producers of artisanal cajeta in the United States.

That photo right there perfectly describes what I wanted to do with my jars of caramel the day they arrived in the mail. We didn't actually drink it out of the jar with a straw but my sister and I did hover over it, eating it straight up with spoons and groaning with disbelief at how delicious it is. 

Fat Toad Farm is located on a winding dirt road in the hills of Central Vermont. Seven years ago, the family started off in their garage milking a French Alpine doe named Jupiter, and today, seven years later, they are milking Jupiter's great great great granddaughter Artemis, and 50 of her closest caprine friends in a modern milking parlour. From grazing the goats to milking, stirring the cajeta, bottling, labelling, marketing and shipping, everything is done on the family farm. I wish these lovely people were my neighbours!! 

Fat Toad caramel is made with just a few top-quality ingredients (primarily goat's milk and organic cane sugar) and what I love about it is that it isn't overly sweet the way some caramels are. 

The caramels come in 4 extra delicious flavours including: original, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and salted bourbon (my favourite!)

If you're a fan of goats like I am, you'll definitely want to check out Fat Toad Farm's Facebook page and see all their adorable goat photos. Along with some fabulous caramel recipes.

And if I may make a suggestion to you all, Mother's Day is coming up and here's what you might want to do. Go to Fat Toad Farm's website and order your mama some goats milk caramel. She deserves it. And so do you. So while you're at it, why not order yourself a couple jars and make my cajeta pudding chomeur? Because believe me, your mouth is going to explode in happiness.

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Fat Toad Farm is kindly giving away a lovely gift package to a Kitchen Vignettes reader, including two 8oz jars of their heavenly Salted Bourbon Caramel in adorable hand-stamped burlap gift bags with tiny wooden spoons. This caramel is infused with Kentucky Straight Bourbon which lends its signature flavours of honey, butter, and a hint of dark fruit to Fat Toad Farm's original caramel palate. A hint of organic sea salt brings it all together and will make you swoon.

To enter the draw, simply leave a comment below sharing your favourite way to eat caramel or go to my Facebook page and share the Fat Toad Farm caramel photo. If you do both, you'll get 2 ballots in the draw. Please note that this month's giveaway is only available to residents of the United States. 

I will be drawing a name at random at the end of the month and announcing the winner on this blog and on Facebook. 

My recipe today is a goat-ey twist on a Québec classic that my mom used to make. Pudding Chômeur literally translates as "pudding of the unemployed", or as it is more often referred to in English, Poor Man's Pudding. It was a creation of Québecoise factory workers during the Great Depression and it has become one of my birth province's signature desserts. It consists of a white cake / dumpling batter over which a caramel or maple syrup sauce is poured before it is baked. The cake then rises through the syrup which sinks to the bottom and creates purely wicked deliciousness. Best thing is, it is dead-easy to make, and even easier to eat!

My plan was to make a plain cajeta pudding chômeur, and then I had the revelation that banana and Salted Bourbon Cajeta might shoot me straight to a very very nice place. Did it ever. 

Because I couldn't find my mom's recipe, I first experimented with several different versions of the recipe in search of the best dough texture. (Because this recipe is all about a good batter). I finally found what I was dreaming of over at my fellow Saveur award recipient, Tim's gorgeous blog Lottie and Doof. His version is adapted from the Au Pied de Cochon Cookbook and uses eggs instead of the full cup of milk many other recipes call for... and a lot more butter, which is generally a good thing! The consistency was exactly what I remembered as a kid. I reduced the sugar in my version since I find this dessert can be overly sweet at times. (Although I'm sure many people would say there is no such thing, in which case, please go ahead and use a full cup of sugar in the batter :-)

SALTED BOURBON CAJETA AND BANANA PUDDING CHÔMEUR
Makes 8 small ramekins or 1 large 9 x 12 inch baking dish

6 oz butter (12 tbsp)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk

2 bananas, thinly sliced
1 jar (8oz /almost 1 cup) of Fat Toad Farm's Salted Bourbon Cajeta (can be purchased online and at Whole Foods and other specialty shops in the US)
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp. butter

Preheat your oven to 325 F.
Cream the sugar and butter together and then incorporate the eggs, either using an electric mixer or a whisk. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together well. Add the sugar mixture to the flour and gently mix, adding 4 tbsp of milk until the dough takes shape. Do not overmix this dough. As soon as it holding together, chill it for 30 minutes to an hour. (Tim's recipe call for refrigerating for 24 hours but I'm rarely organized enough to start my recipes the day before, so I just threw the bowl in the freezer for about 20 to 30 minutes and it turned out perfectly).

In a small saucepan, heat the cajeta, 1/2 cup water, and 3 tbsp. butter on medium heat. As soon as it begins to bubbles, remove from heat and stir well. 

Now butter up 8 small ramekins (you can also use a 9 x 12 baking dish if you prefer). In each ramekin, place 1 large tablespoonful of caramel sauce. Then add a large tablespoonful of batter on top, squish it down a wee bit and lay 4 thin slices of banana on top. Cover with  another heaping tablespoonful of caramel sauce followed by one more spoonful of dough. Arrange 4 more slices of banana on top and pour 2 more tablespoonfuls of caramel sauce on top. The ramekins should be about 3/4 full. The key to this recipe is using a lot caramel sauce! Even if it feels like you're putting too much sauce and your poor little lumps of dough are drowning in it, don't worry, this is what's going to give you the delicious gooey caramel covered dough that this pudding is famous for.

Place the 8 ramekins on a baking sheet (because the caramel is likely going to bubble up and spill over) and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes in a 325F oven or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes and serve warm. Bon appétit mes amis!

Mango Ginger Black Sesame Larabars and a giveaway winner!

You're probably thinking Larabars aGAIN?! I know I just did a big long post about homemade larabars last week, and I don't mean to be predictable or repetitive, but you see, I am just a little obsessed. I have turned into a Larabar-making and EATING machine as of late, and I can't quite contain my enthusiasm for these deceptively easy-to-make treats that taste so good. I'll keep it short and sweet since we already went through the process last week and I have a special announcement to get to, ahem!

So before we get to the recipe, thank you all so much to everyone who entered my April giveaway. I appreciate the effort you all made in introducing new people to my blog and I only wish I had a prize for every single one of you! And welcome welcome welcome to all the new people who have landed here via a friend or family member. Now without further ado, I'm very pleased to announce the lucky winner of the sunshine yellow Le Creuset French Oven is... Brooke van Mossel-Forrester! Congratulations and enjoy your new pot!! Please use the 'contact me' link on the right sidebar to send me a little note to claim your prize and provide me with your mailing address so that I can pass it on to the fine folks at Le Creuset who will send you your lovely sunshine pot. Thank you Le Creuset for sponsoring this wonderful giveaway! And stay tuned for tomorrow's blogpost announcing my May giveaway, because it's a tasty one!

MANGO GINGER BLACK SESAME BARS

1 1/2 cup chopped dried unsulfured and unsweetened mango
1/4 cup chopped dried unsulfured and unsweetened apricots
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger

2 cups pecans

Fresh squeezed juice from one lime

1/4 cup black sesame seeds

Dried mango can be a little leathery so to soften it up, cut it into pieces (I used scissors for this) and squeeze the juice of one lime on top. WIth your hands, mix the two to ensure all the mango is coated in lime juice. Allow to sit on the counter for about 15 minutes or longer.

Chop the pecans in the food processor until they are roughly ground (should look like breadcrumbs but bigger pieces of pecans are ok too). Do not over-process them or they will turn to nut butter and your bars will very oily, I made this mistake on my first attempt, though they were still just as delicious!

Put the ground pecans in a separate bowl, leaving about 1/2 cup in the food processor. Add the chopped mango and lime juice, candied ginger, and apricots. Process everything until roughly pureed. The mixture will likely turn into a big ball of thick gooey paste and in that case you can stop the processor, break it up with a spatula and then keep blending. Once you have a relatively consistent paste (small chunks of mango are ok), add it to the bowl of chopped pecans and mix the two with your hands until you have a uniform paste. Press this into a 8 x 8 inch pan with wax paper on the bottom. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. (You can toast the sesames lightly on low-medium  heat in a frying pan first to bring out their flavour if you like). Cool down for about an hour or two in the fridge (or 30 minutes in the freezer) and then slice into bars or squares. You can wrap them up individually in wax or parchment paper if you like. They will keep for about a month, especially if they are refrigerated.

Homemade Lemon Poppy Seed Lärabars!

Spring is such an emotional rollercoaster. One day you're picking crocuses in the sunshine and the next morning you wake up to a winter wonderland. I think it's safe to say we've finally crossed into the gentler, greener part of spring! Honestly, what got me through it this year is kitties and lemons.  Yup.

Because on those days when we were slammed with yet another snow dump, the kitties were either cozied up by the woodstove, or meditating in the snow, taking it all in stride. And really, isn't that the best way to await spring's arrival? The kitties know.

As for lemons. If you can't have sunshine, I suppose they might be the next best thing. I'm not usually one to obsess over lemons, really. But without planning it that way, April has been the month of lemons. There was the Easter bread with candied lemon peels, and then the lemon polenta cake, and now, these lemon poppy seed bars which are blowing my mind. 

Have you ever had a Lärabar? They're a deliciously nutritious little snack with a very short ingredient list (usually a good thing in the world of packaged foods). I have been a longtime fan. But last year, they let me down big time. You see those seemingly innocent little bars of delight are owned by General Mills which donated a whopping $1.2 million to defeat Proposition 37 in California (the GMO labeling initiative). It makes me mad. Think of all the things $1.2 million could do in this world!! Instead, they wasted it on TV ads to scare Californians into believing they don't have the right to know if their food is genetically modified or not. And now that several other states are also about to vote on GMO labelling initiatives, it would be very nice if these big companies would back-off and realize that people do have a basic right to know what is in their food. So I've decided to join the Lärabar boycott (along with boycotting a bunch of other companies that fought against peoples' right to know in California... including Kellogg's, Coca Cola, see the full list here).

Well it turns out boycotts are pretty fun. Especially when you have to learn how to make your own delicious snacks!

 

I decided to try my hand at a lemon poppy seed bar. I was expecting deliciousness, to be sure. (How can you go wrong with dried fruit and nuts all mashed up together?) But I wasn't expecting to blow my own socks off! These bars are gooey and oozing with flavor. They are a perfect hiking, traveling, lunching, breakfast, anytime and anything snack. Trust me, and try them out. They take minutes to make. No baking. No fuss. Here's how you do it.

 

LEMON POPPY SEED SNACK BARS

2 cups raw cashews

1 cup golden raisins (these are a pale yellow colour) *

1 cup chopped dried apricots (get the brown, unsulfured kind, they are so much better!) 

 Grated rind from 2 whole organic lemons 

1 to 2 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice (start with 1 tbsp, add another if the mix is not too wet)

1/3 cup poppy seeds

Put all the ingredients in the food processor, except the poppy seeds and about 1 teaspoon of the grated lemon rind. Put these aside for the topping. Process the other ingredients for a while, until the whole thing has turned into a very thick paste. You may still have small chunks of cashews depending on how strong your food processor is and that's ok, but the raisins and apricots should be well-mashed into each other. If the mix is too dry, add the second tablespoon of lemon juice, a little at a time. 

Transfer to a mixing bowl and with your hands, knead about 1/2 of the poppy seeds into the fruit and cashew paste.  In a little bowl, mix the remaining poppy seeds with the reserved teaspoon of grated lemon rind.

Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with wax paper. Press the fruit paste down into the pan evenly. Sprinkle with the poppy seed and grated lemon rind mixture. Refrigerate for about 2 hours and then slice into bars or squares. You can wrap these individually in a little wax paper if you like. They will keep in the fridge for several weeks.

*After I posted this recipe, a reader kindly informed me in the comments section that golden raisins are just regular raisins treated with sulfur dioxide to prevent them from darkening. I didn't know that and will probably want to avoid them in the future - I'm going to experiment with only apricots and also with unsulfured dried pineapple. I'm trying to stick to light colours to keep a yellowish lemony colour to the bars, although that is purely aesthetic (If anyone has other suggestions about good substitutes, I'd love to hear them, please leave a comment bellow :-)